The stock market posted mixed results Thursday following yesterday's big advance, but some stocks kept climbing. T-Mobile rose 9%, while Rocket Fuel jumped14%, and Frontline climbed 10%. Find out more about what helped these stocks soar.

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

As often happens after a big day in the stock market, investors took a breather Thursday, largely leaving major market benchmarks near the unchanged level. With the Fed's future course on monetary policy looking clearer, investors seemed content to preserve their gains from a strong 2013. But many stocks managed to keep climbing, with T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS), Rocket Fuel (NASDAQ:FUEL), and Frontline (NYSE:FRO) among them.

T-Mobile rose 9% amid a flurry of takeover speculation within the telecom industry. Reports that DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) could be planning to make a bid for the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier next year sent the stock rising. That potentially sets up yet another bidding war with Sprint (NYSE:S) and Japan's Softbank, which is also reportedly interested in T-Mobile. With Softbank having beaten out DISH in the Sprint buyout, DISH might well be looking for a way to avenge its loss, and gain valuable exposure to the U.S. wireless market.

Rocket Fuel soared 14% as analysts at Needham Securities upgraded the stock. The artificial-intelligence advertising specialist had dropped substantially after the run-up following its September IPO, with poor third-quarter earnings and fourth-quarter guidance weighing on shares. But Needham believes the drop has been overdone, and with interest in cloud-based solutions still strong, Rocket Fuel has the potential to climb higher, as long as investors remain on board with the cloud concept.

Frontline gained 10%. Several analysts have come out with bullish calls on the shipping industry generally, pointing to gains in levels of economic activity in recent months, and investors are anxiously trying to jump the gun on 2014 as the year that tanker and dry-bulk shipping alike might finally emerge from their long slump. Still, Frontline is losing money, and the rise in energy production around the world has definitely had an impact on the tanker industry. As Frontline has become more optimistic about the industry, however, shareholders are following suit.

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Dan Caplinger has been a contract writer for the Motley Fool since 2006. As the Fool's Director of Investment Planning, Dan oversees much of the personal-finance and investment-planning content published daily on Fool.com. With a background as an estate-planning attorney and independent financial consultant, Dan's articles are based on more than 20 years of experience from all angles of the financial world.
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